The Glory of Lowliness
Introduction
I did as much preparation for my recent teaching mission to Myanmar as possible, but even as I flew out of Perth I had no witness that I had anything of significance to share with the dear people I knew I would encounter across the churches. I spent quite a lot of time praying about this, but it was only as the plane began to descend into KL that I sensed the Spirit of the Lord working inside of me. God was pulling so strongly on my heart that I thought I might break down in tears. I was utterly overcome by the desirability, goodness and wisdom of lowliness. I had the most intense sense that the greater our vision of the Lord the lower we will desire to be. I felt like those times during my early morning prayer walks when I get down on my hands and knees of the footpath as a sign of submission. But it was much more intense. I am convinced that lowliness is a key to sharing in the life of Jesus, for it was through lowliness he became united with us so that we might become united with him.
Lowliness Sees the Lord
The most visionary experience of my life was in 1994 when after a week of prayer I was so crushed in spirit I wasn’t even sure that I could keep praying. All I could do was to go face down on the carpet and cling to it for dear life; as I did this I had an epiphany of Jesus in heaven restoring order to “all things” (Acts 3:17-21; Eph 4:8-10). Seeing things from this perspective the Church is always receiving gifts from Jesus, not to fill herself, but to fill the world. Such a “seeing” in the Spirit immediately imparts a knowledge that Christ is the apostle (Heb 3:1), the worship leader (Heb 8:2) and the source and perfection of all other ministries. He is the substance of our prayer life (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25) etc. But why are such great Christ-centred truths hidden from most of us? We are not lowly enough.
The Same Jesus
That “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Heb 13:8) means the “meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2 Cor 10:1) is something he retains today. The exaltation of Jesus to glory has not stripped him of his lowliness, lowliness is in fact the medium of God’s glory in Christ (Luke 24:26). This is not our natural way of thinking! I walked past a car the other day and on its rear windscreen was a large sticker, pictures of crowns were on both sides and in the centre was the word SUPERIOR. Apparently, for this person royalty means superiority. But not for God. The Jesus who used an invitation to the harassed of his day, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt 11:29) is now even more lowly than when he was on earth (Heb 2:10; 5:9). We must ask the Spirit to show us such things.
Lowliness Fights not Flights
The kingdom of God involves constant warfare, but in godliness not triumphalism. According to the messianic Psalm 45 (cited in Heb 1:8-9), the King rides forth “victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness” (v.4). Jesus is presently making war on the hostile forces of darkness in humility, for meekness isn’t weakness, but strength under control. Arrogant Christians cannot know these things (Jude 8-9).
Undivided
Theologians speak of the two states of Christ, first humiliation then exaltation (Phil 2:5-11; 2 Cor 8:9 etc.), but lowliness and greatness aren’t two phases for Jesus. He is great in his lowliness and lowly in his greatness. These two aspects of his Person are in complete union. Sadly, I remember a gentle man who after he became leader of a megachurch into a controlling person. Christlikeness means meekness under all conditions.
Lowliness means Indwelling
The Bible promises we can share “the mind of Christ”, which means considering others “more significant than ourselves” (1 Cor 2:16; Phil 2:3-4). Jesus brought this disposition from heaven to earth; God humbly treats us more important than himself. Why? So we might treat him more important than ourselves. The end result is a share in the glory of God (Rom 8:17; Phil 2:9). The deeper our inner lowliness the more intensely we will find ourselves indwelt by the love of God (Eph 3:14-17). How wonderful! We can read this passage prophetically about Jesus. “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Isa 57:15). Jesus both indwells the heights of heaven but also remembers his trembling in Gethsemane. His is the crushed spirit that has been revived in resurrection. If we share in Christ’s lowliness we too will be revived.
Great Lowliness
The greatest revival preacher ever was John the Baptist (Matt 3:4-6). Jesus said of John, “I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (Luke 7:28). John’s greatness consisted of his extreme lowliness, ““After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.” (Mark 1:7), ““A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven….he must increase but I must decrease.” (John 3:27, 30). His great lowliness is an expression of how he saw himself in relation to Jesus. This is our cue too, as we look to Jesus we will come lower and lower.
Conclusion
Lowliness isn’t a virtue to be cultivated, it is a person whose life we are called to share, lowliness is Jesus. This is why I am scandalised by the way some churches market themselves on their websites. They call themselves “remarkable”, “amazing”, “passionate”, “visionary” and so on. This is NOT “the meekness of wisdom” (James 3:13) and it certainly out of tune with genuine apostolic sentiment, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Gal 6:14). The more you want to be like Jesus the more you will want to be lowly like God himself. If we have this heart disposition, the Lord will do the rest, as and when he sees fit (1 Pet 5:6). The truly meek are content with this, knowing that whatever the Lord does it will lead to an ever-increasing exalting in lowliness. Praise the Lord.